The new era in the world of domain names and branding for your business is upon us. In the early years the .COM release was the beginning of the world of online presence, and changed the way that we do business. It created a unique online presence opportunity for businesses and individuals alike. Now .CO is set to be the largest land grab since this time. Over time the availability of desired domain names that suited a business became exhausted for .COM, .CO is about to change all of this.

Since the announcement of the .CO release in February 2010 it has been a hot ticket item; with over 500,000 .CO domains registered to date that are selling fast. This release gives new and existing businesses the opportunity to secure one, two and three word domains names they specifically desire to represent their business. For smaller or personal businesses these new properties will give them the ability to compete with their competitors having the access to suitable niche keyword domains. With .COM so heavily exhausted it has been difficult for up and coming or expanding businesses to secure desired keywords with shorter characters for their domain name.

The new domain names are also designed to shorten existing website addresses to make them more accessible on social networking sites and SMS messages. In a world of 140 characters, a short URL is the key to success. Before .CO adapting to social networking technology to support your business online could be difficult. In this social networking era, shortening and sharing your URLs with a .CO domain will increase your online presence, resulting in increased relevant traffic to your domain.

Before July 2010 there was an interim where only trademark holders were able to purchase .CO before it was released to the general public. During the pre-launch phase 39,000 .CO domains were registered. This represented domain names for 70% of trademarked brands. These players are using the release to further expand and protect their online presence. If the trademark brand has not pre-registered it opens a huge opportunity for other parties to access traffic using the existing brand awareness. Registrars have urged businesses to hastily secure their .CO trademark names.

For serious domain players looking to capitalise on their real estate .CO gives them a large opportunity to compete on highly sort after keyword driven properties. The ability to register one and two word domains gives these players more possibilities to monetize their assets. In the first 24 hours of the release, domain names such as happy.co, pub.co, chairs.co have been registered. Some domain names currently registered for .CO are already valued at over USD $90,000. For example, Overstock.com paid $350,000 USD for o.co to target a global audience and protect its brand.

This new domain name era has set in motion a "domain name rush", with businesses throughout the world in a frenzy to secure domain names related to their organisation and industry. If you missed the opportunity for the .COM for your business and are yet to secure your very own .co domain name, it would be a wise move to act quickly and start searching through the many registrars available to snap up those .Co domains while they still last.